S 1071, explained
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026
Active Became Public Law No: 119-60. · Author: John Cornyn (R-TX)
In plain English
This bill sets spending authority and policies for the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of State, Coast Guard, and intelligence agencies for the 2026 budget year. It allows the military to buy equipment like aircraft and ships, sets the number of active and reserve troops, and creates rules for military healthcare, pay, contracting, and various other operations.
If this passes
What would actually change, according to the official CRS summary. No predictions, no opinions.
- The military would be authorized to purchase specified aircraft, ships, missiles, and other equipment
- Active duty and reserve component personnel strength levels would be set for fiscal year 2026
- Policies would be established for military health care, military compensation, and DOD contracting practices
- Military construction projects would be authorized and certain previous projects would be extended
- Policies would be set for cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and intelligence community operations
Who's lobbying this bill
130 organizations reported lobbying activity
mentioning this bill. Federal lobbying reports list the bills an organization worked and its total quarterly lobbying spend, they don't say which side the organization took, and fees aren't itemized per bill.
Chamber Of Commerce Of The U.S.A.total lobbying spend, quarters naming this bill · 3 filings
$55.7M Pharmaceutical Research And Manufacturers Of Americatotal lobbying spend, quarters naming this bill · 4 filings
$41.2M American Chemistry Counciltotal lobbying spend, quarters naming this bill · 3 filings
$13.7M Money and the vote
How the chambers voted, from official roll-call records.
Senate · On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to S. 1071)2025-12-17
77–20 House · On Passage2025-12-10
312–112 Lobbying organizations' PAC money, by vote
Where an organization lobbying this bill has an affiliated PAC (linked through the FEC's
own connected-organization records), this shows that PAC's direct contributions to the members on each side of the
vote. Contributions span whole election cycles and are not tied to any single vote; no causal link is asserted.
American Chemistry Councildirect PAC contributions to Senate members voting (2024 + 2026 cycles)
$167K → Yes (77) · $0 → No (20) American Chemistry Councildirect PAC contributions to House members voting (2024 + 2026 cycles)
$606K → Yes (312) · $44K → No (112)
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candidates or measures. Every number on this page comes from official disclosure filings, cited below.
Sources
- Bill text and CRS summary: Congress.gov.
- Lobbying activity: quarterly LDA reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House (lda.senate.gov).
- Votes: official House Clerk and Senate roll-call records. PAC contributions: FEC bulk data (committee-to-candidate transactions).
Explainer text is generated from the official source text above and reviewed for neutrality:
it describes only what the text says, in conditional terms, with no evaluations or predictions.
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